Exxon Beats Estimates as US Oil Refineries Flourish

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), the world’s largest energy company by market value, posted net income that exceeded the highest estimate from analysts as its U.S. refineries diminished the impact of lower oil output and prices.

Third-quarter profit was $9.57 billion, or $2.09 a share, down 7.1 percent from $10.3 billion, or $2.13, a year earlier, Irving, Texas-based Exxon said in a statement today. The per- share result topped the high estimate of $2.07 and was 13 cents more than the $1.96 average of 19 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Exxon’s profit from refining oil at U.S. plants soared 78 percent to $1.4 billion, even as the benchmark margin based on New York futures contracts dropped 5.2 percent. Oil and natural gas production from Exxon’s wells fell to the lowest in three years as output slipped everywhere the company operates except for Africa and Australia, slashing so-called upstream profit by 29 percent to $5.97 billion.

“Their upstream performance was light relative to expectations but that was offset somewhat by strength in their U.S. refining operations,” Jason Gammel, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Europe Ltd. in London, said in a telephone interview today.